U.s. Finds Itself Stuck In Middle

Relationship Between Cuba, Canada Is Galling To Many

TORONTO - — Puffing Cohiba and Esplendido cigars and sipping Cubita coffee, several Canadian businessmen relaxed in a cigar store recently, chatting about their latest trips to Cuba's Veradero beach and poking fun at U.S. foreign policy.

"Ah, just think of me lounging on a beach chair in Cuba, smoking one of these cigars, a glass of the finest Cuban rum in hand, and reading Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea," lawyer Richard O'Brien said.

"And not an American to be seen," chimed in Charles Diab, who runs a bathroom supply company. "What could be better?'' A few miles to the south, in the United States, such a scene would be considered criminal conspiracy. And the thousands of dollars worth of Cuban tobacco that line the store's walls would be enough contraband, in the United States, to put its possessor behind bars for years.

But this is Canada, Cuba's favorite trading partner. And for a glimpse of what life might be like in Florida without a trade embargo against Cuba, look north.

During the winter, Canadian tourists board 40 planes a week for Cuba, many staying in hotels built with Canadian investment. Tobacco shops in Toronto and Montreal offer the finest variety of Cuban smokes. At one store, Cuban women roll the cigars by hand.

Off Nova Scotia, Cuban fishermen ply the waters for seafood to send home. Union workers in Vancouver, British Columbia, invite Cuban laborers to seminars on organizing their forces. Jewish groups send food so Cuban Jews can have a Passover meal.

In the stately halls of Ottawa, Canadian diplomats offer advice to Cuban authorities on everything from foreign policy to trade. The Canadian foreign minister met with President Fidel Castro in Havana in January and boasted of his visit in a recent speech in Chicago.

In Canada, it doesn't seem to matter that Castro is considered a villain in many parts of the world. It doesn't seem to matter that the U.S. Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which aims to punish foreigners doing business with Cuba.

To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Canada's link with Cuba is steadily growing.

"Cuba: A warmth to remember," reads a billboard in downtown Toronto, which sums up the cozy relationship.

It's enough to make Cuban exiles in South Florida furious.

"It's disgusting and very hypocritical," says Ninoska Perez, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. "It's such an arrogance."

Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chief antagonist of Castro and communism, fumed recently: "(Canadians) have been riding roughshod over us for long enough. There's got to be some understanding of what a neighbor should be to another neighbor."

As communism faded, Canada became natural

Born out of leftist causes and a free market, trade to Cuba is now worth a half-billion U.S. dollars a year to Canada. Canadians, who prize their neutrality, have for years kept diplomatic doors open to Cuba.

After the collapse of communism in Europe in the early 1990s, Canada was a natural avenue to replace trade lost by Cuba.

Increasingly in recent months, the Cuba-Canada link has become a badge of honor among Canadians. Canada is joining the European stance that the Clinton administration has no business telling another nation what to do.

Helms-Burton was passed by the U.S. Congress last March after Cuban MiG jets shot down two small planes carrying Cuban exiles over the Florida Straits last winter. The bill is designed to make it tougher for countries to trade with Cuba.

It allows for Cuban-Americans to sue countries and foreign firms in U.S. courts if the foreigners are profiting from operating on land confiscated by Castro's government after 1959. And it prohibits foreigners who invest in the confiscated property from entering the United States.

But in Europe and Canada - strong U.S. allies in many respects - Helms-Burton is backfiring against the Clinton administration. The 15-member European Union is taking its beef to a World Trade Oraganization disputes panel. The Clinton administration has already said it will not abide by any decision made by the panel for reasons of "national security."

In Canada, Helms-Burton is putting a chill in what has always been a cordial relationship with the United States.

In Miami, Cuban-Americans complain about Canada being unfaithful to the United States, its most important trading partner. Some American legislators find the newfound Canadian independence particularily galling considering the shared common borders and mutual security concerns.

But on talk shows, in shops and bars here, Canadians revel in tweaking American sensibilities.